Posts by 81stcolumn
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A whole generation of Britons acquired an allergy to “hung parliaments” and Liberal politics on the strength of the infamous 1974 first general election. Despite the fact that the parliament appeared doomed and any coalition at best unlikely; Ted Heath, the Prime minister of the day tried to form a coalition, he failed. Whether he should have tried and why he failed is a matter of some debate, but certainly in our house, the liberals got the blame, due in no small part I suspect to the efforts of the Tory press. The link to the election also includes a link to Jeremy Thorpe the then Liberal leader, his life and related scandal makes colourful reading. In terms of serious scandal New Zealand may yet have some catching up to do.
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@Gio
Hopefully won't coincide with Rugby World Cup 2011.
Are you kidding? We'd have the captive, stranded tourists we've always hoped for.
The idea might sound great in Wellington but drunken britons running out of money -
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HMV record token for your effort perhaps......?
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Well I gotta say there is a 12" version of this worth tracking down, very nearly broke my heart, and at that time I hadn't even met the lady.
Goodness Mr Grigg you are a gem indeed.
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Brush up your Shakespeare start quoting him now....
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I was talking about invention, you're talking about popularisation, which is something else.
I think it's a non argument both ways. Nobody invented anything. They all grabbed, assaulted and adopted.
When I stoppped and thought about this I realised how awkward the semantics argument would become.
The thought that remains, is that saying somone invented punk is much the same as saying Alexander Fleming invented Penicillin. I suspect nature and the petri dish had a role to play in the latter case. Using words like discovery restarts the semantics argument over again.
Which in itself is a fitting tribute to McLaren, who I am sure would not have been unaware or dissatisfied with the debate generated by his claim that he invented punk.
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McLaren's claim that he "invented punk" was spurious, self-serving crap, however. The CBGBs scene in NYC was fermenting nicely without him and the Ramones' debut was out well before any of the British punk albums.
I always get a bit niggly when this issue crops up. The Ramones are great and deeply woven into music and its law. But the punk I knew grew up in London with Vivienne Westwood and the Kings Road. I read somewhere the argument that in America punk was still really a figure of speech -in London it became a proper movement.
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The Krotons.....
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But would the tin feel heavy?
but you just 'observed' it (by feeling for the weight) so you've changed the state.
Does the weight of expectation change the state of what is observed or the observation ?
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I believe we the people subsidised Paula Bennett's education, do you think it's time we asked for our money back ?